I Survived The Zombie Apocalypse…er I Mean Thanksgiving

November 27, 2012

Thanksgiving is over that blessed of all “food” holidays we’re obsessed with here in the US and I for one am happy about it. I was pretty worried about it because I didn’t think there was any way I wouldn’t overeat. It was tough, with all the cakes, cupcakes, pies and high carb dishes staring me in the face with every turn in the kitchen but I did it. My official weigh-in this morning had me down 6 pounds from last week so I not only survived but I punched Thanksgiving right in the throat. Here’s how:

This is going to sound cliched but basically it all boils down to will power. I’m all for the low-carb thing but I think most of my weight loss success has been caused primarily by caloric restriction, basically not eating more calories than I burn in a given day, sounds simple but it eludes a lot of people. The low carb count is great for my blood sugar but I don’t think that is really causing the weight-burn I’m seeing, I could be wrong and am not a doctor but I know how to read so there you go. At any rate I won at Thanksgiving very simply, at dinner I had some carbs but less than a full serving. I had a tablespoon of potatoes, a tablespoon of macaroni and cheese plus a normal serving of roasted turkey with roasted cabbage and green beans. This was plenty of food for me without feeling too stuffed and didn’t leave me craving any additional food, it just worked. Here’s where it gets tricky.

My wife loves sweets, cakes, pies, cookies, all of them. Normally it doesn’t bother me too much but this was Thanksgiving, I had to eat some sweets right? It was expected! Guess what? I didn’t, not even a small slice of pumpkin pie. It might sound horrible or even like torture but it really wasn’t bad. I simply didn’t crave that stuff anymore. I had eaten a sufficient enough dinner so I wasn’t hungry anymore and didn’t really want anything additional. This strategy was primarily driven by the fact that if you are hungry you are more likely to crave sweets, at least I am so I simply made sure I wasn’t hungry. Watching other people eat the sweet stuff didn’t bother me either despite them all telling me how good it was, creeps. 🙂

Basically as I’ve said in this blog all along, nothing is easy and it all comes down to discipline and self-control. This is not what the diet commercials sell you of course, they tell you its all easy but it isn’t. It does get easier as you progress though, it really does. My survival of Thanksgiving is a testament to that fact.